There are many paths you can take as your next step, but I suggest you to talk with the franchisees of the franchise company you are interested in. Most likely than not, having a chit-chat with several franchisees will give you an idea or two about the franchise companies – good words and bad words.
A great franchise company is the one that has franchisees as the evangelists. Of course, franchisees are generally required to keep all the “secret recipes” remain as, well, secrets. However, they do have something to share to other, especially in day-to-day operations and franchisors’ support.
I was also visiting the franchisees’ stores of the franchise company I am interested in. I do get some idea that is not shared by the franchisors, and they are clearly helping me make a decision whether to buy the franchise or not.
As a franchisee, I was, too, approached a couple of times by franchisee candidates that are interested in buying a franchise unit of the same franchise company I am with.
From my experience, these are the questions often being asked by franchise candidates (I asked some of these, too, when I was one):
- Is it really that profitable? Could you share some numbers, please?
- How’s the franchisor’s support? Will the franchisor help me manage my franchise unit?
- Will the franchisor helps me in staff recruitment?
- Are you allowed to source products from different suppliers?
- Are you allowed to sell other line of products different from those of your franchisor’s?
Although some of those questions are supposedly asked to the franchisor, but the franchisees are generally offer some different, rather interesting, answers. The answers will give us some insights and help us understand whether the franchisors and the franchisees ‘play by the rules’ laid out in the agreement and SOP or not.
Some glowing references from the franchisees should encourage you to go forward with the purchase, while negative words should help you to consider your options – All in all, use your ‘intelligence reports’ to weigh your decisions wisely, with consideration to your ‘gut feelings’ and mindset/knowledge about franchising you have.
Ivan Widjaya
Franchise investigation
Image by harrykeely.
